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65 Am. U. L. Rev. 535 (2015-2016)
Juvenile Life without Parole in Law and Practice: Chronicling the Rapid Change Underway

handle is hein.journals/aulr65 and id is 561 raw text is: ARTICLE JUVENILE LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE IN LAW AND PRACTICE: CHRONICLING THE RAPID CHANGE UNDERWAY JOHN R. MILLS,* ANNA M. DORN,* AND AMELIA COURTNEY HRITZ* This Article provides a comprehensive examination of juvenile life without parole ('LWOP) both as a policy and in practice. Beginning in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution restricts the reach ofJL WOP sentences, first prohibiting it for non-homicide offenses, then proscribing its mandatory application for any offense, and, in 2016, clarifying that it may only be imposed in the rare instance in which a juvenile's homicide demonstrates his or her irrparable corruption. The legislative responses to these cases have been to either abandon or restrict JLWOP's application. These legislative changes undo aspects of the rapid expansion of harsh juvenile sentencing policies enacted across the country starting in the early-1 990s and represent a trend away from usingfLWOP sentences. By analyzing JL WOP sentencing data from state departments of corrections, this Article includes three significant findings. First, among juveniles arrested for homicide, African American youth receivejLWOP sentences twice as often * Principal Attorney, Phillips Black Project. The Phillips Black Project is a public interest law practice committed to providing the highest quality legal representation to those facing the severest penalties authorized by law. Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley School of Law. ** Research Fellow, Phillips Black Project. Ms. Dorn focuses exclusively on juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentencing policy and practices. *** Graduate student, dual PhD/JD Developmental Psychology and Law Program, Cornell University. The authors would like to thank Sheri Lynn Johnson, John Blume, and Jennifer Breen for their thoughtful comments on early drafts and Karlyn Lacey and Sarah Edwards for their invaluable research assistance. 535

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